Ravenhill set for three-game ban

City midfielder Ricky Ravenhill looks set to be missing for the next three matches following his disputed sending off at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium this Saturday.

Ravenhill was given a straight red card just past the half hour mark for an apparent head-butt on Burton's Lee Bell despite there looking to be very minimal contact between the pair.

Given that the dismissal will be classed as 'violent conduct' and there being no plans from the club at the moment to appeal, Ravenhill is now in line to serve a three-game ban for the red.

That means he will miss Tuesday's trip to Wigan Athletic in the Capital One Cup, next Saturday's F.A Cup tie at Northampton Town, plus the following Tuesday's home npower League 2 match with Chesterfield.

Speaking on the red card incident itself, Parkinson said: "To me, Lee Bell seems to have thrown himself up to Ricky first, yes, there is some contact there, but he's then just thrown himself down on the floor."

"The way I look at it, do I ask my players to cheat? Looking at the reply, Ricky could easily have gone down first before Lee did.

"For me, when Lee watches the incident again, I think he'll be embarrassed with his reaction.

"I asked the referee at half-time was he sure it was a head-butt, he said he was.

"Having watched the DVD after the game, I've asked him again and he sure says he was sure. I just said I think he needs to look at it again.

"If you're Ricky and a player rears up aggressively at you and then throws himself to the ground, then you've got to look at it and say you've been very hard done to."